Communications

It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through.

Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping.

Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all.

Continue reading "Friday dilemma: Why don’t academics answer the phone?" »

I kissed my boss yesterday. It felt weird. I regretted it immediately. But I’d already clicked “Send”.

There was no way back. At least it was only one kiss. I’ve received work emails from people of all ages, gender, and sexual persuasion with up to three kisses. Not to mention one xoxoxo.

At first I thought it was confined to women under the age of 25 working in public relations. Then I realised it was seeping into all workplace correspondence.

Continue reading "My confession: I kissed the boss! ;-) xoxoxo" »

One of the justifications that the government uses for the roll-out of the $43 billion National Broadband Network is the desire by Australian householders to have access to better and faster landline services. However, a survey of the available data suggests that Australians are turning increasingly to mobile communications devices, and abandoning fixed lines.

Mobile phone services have grown rapidly over the last 10 years. At the same time fixed-line telephone services have stagnated. This growth in the take up of the mobile phone has coincided with a rise in the number of household consumers who do not access to a fixed-line telephone service. The choice of not having a fixed-line telephone service seems to be driven by age and living arrangements.

Younger adults living in group households are most likely to go without this service and older adults in family households are most likely to retain the land line.

Continue reading "The NBN will arrive just as we don’t need it anymore" »

It is time Parliaments joined Governments to ensure all professional lobbyists are registered. All lobbyists should be required to adhere to a code of conduct. And interest groups and think tanks should be required to disclose who their members and donors are.

Recent developments in the debate about plain packaging of tobacco and carbon pricing have in turn kicked off a debate about the role of lobbyists, interest groups and think tanks. In particular, who influences the influencers?

Political parties have for many years been required to disclose significant donors. The current debate is about the threshold at which donations should be disclosed.

Continue reading "Lifting the lid on lobbyists" »

As you can probably guess it was me who hacked into the email accounts of ten senior federal ministers.

I hacked into Julia Gillard’s because I wanted to know what it was like to run a country, I hacked into Kevin Rudd’s because I wanted to know what it was like to run the world, and I hacked into Stephen Smith’s because…well, I just really wanted to get some sleep.

But what I found was deeply shocking and in yet another extraordinary exclusive I can now reveal their explosive contents for the first time…

Continue reading "EXCLUSIVE! I hacked the Government’s emails" »

It’s a strategy that President Obama’s spin team employed when he was neck-deep in political hot water over an incredibly unpopular health care policy – demonise the critics.

Instead of addressing valid criticisms, damn the people making them.

Witness the way the groundswell “Tea Party” movement was wrongly characterised by most of the mainstream media in the US and here as well.  There’s a derisory edge, almost a snigger, whenever the media discuss this significant political movement. 

Continue reading "Don’t address the concern, shoot the critic" »

As of next month Air New Zealand passengers will be allowed to use mobiles while on board, enabling Kiwi jet-setters to advise their loved ones that their flight is on schedule and they’ll be home by sucks.

What really sucks about this move is that it will destroy the sole remaining bastion of public peace, the sanctuary of the aircraft, which in this hyper-connected modern world is the only escape from texts, tweets, emails, and the sheer horror of the loud and long-winded conversations of strangers.

I’ve never been to New Zealand but from what I can gather it consists of two islands, each of them about 500km long, with a large airport in the middle somewhere so that its citizens can emigrate to Australia to find work. Based on this rough estimate the longest domestic flight in NZ would take about 40 minutes and the extremely popular one-way flight to Bondi only marginally longer.

Continue reading "Texts, tweets, emails and other inanities at 36,000 ft" »

Anyone who works in corporate communications or PR will be familiar with the famous Tylenol case in the 1980s, when Johnson and Johnson immediately withdrew all its products and reinvented its packaging after a deranged extortionist killed seven people by lacing the painkiller with cyanide.

In years to come, Anna Bligh’s management of the Queensland flood and cyclone crisis will stand as a comparable case study in how political leaders should best handle a natural disaster.

In the past two weeks, and particularly this week, Bligh has created a new template for political communication. It’s been based around honesty, decisiveness and plain speech. It’s been based around saying what government can do, and what it cannot do.

Continue reading "No-bullshit Bligh sets a new standard for politicians" »

So much for opening the curtains and letting the sunshine in. The last few weeks of the Federal Parliamentary year have highlighted the farcical lengths the Gillard Government will go to avoid the sunshine of parliamentary scrutiny. 

Demanding unprecedented seven year secrecy clauses from MPs.  Blocking legislation to allow the Productivity Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Then finally, dragged kicking and screaming, releasing just a flimsy 36 page summary of the NBN 400-page business plan.

It begs the simple question: why be so secretive?

Continue reading "The NBN still hasn’t brought the promised sunshine" »

Update 6am: The ABC is reporting the non-disclosure agreement has been shrunk to just two weeks, making it impossible to see how the demand for seven years, or even three, was ever justified.

Details of the National Broadband Network business plan are apparently so secret that in order to see them you have to sign a seven year confidentiality agreement. But objections by cross-benchers have now forced the Government to more than halve the terms of that agreement to just three years.

If you’re confused it’s because the Government has embarked on a confusing strategy in a bid to solve its growing NBN business plan problem that will dominate the politics of the last sitting week. The Government is blurring the line between information that is commercially sensitive and that which is politically sensitive.

In a bid to pass the NBN legislation Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told cross-benchers they could see the see the mysterious NBN business plan, but they would need to sign a seven year confidentiality agreement. Greens communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam and other cross-benchers have politely told the Government to go jump. 

Continue reading "Conroy plays deal or no deal on NBN business case" »

Technology is changing the way we communicate with each other – and not for the better. Gone are the days when “catching up” with friends required that you be in the same room, or even the same city.

Nowadays many of our closest relationships are mediated by machines, and it’s taking a toll on what was once considered civilised society. We are forgetting how to speak to one another face-to-face. We are switched-on, but we’re getting more and more disconnected from our true selves.

There is one product more than any other that has led to this worrying state of affairs.

Continue reading "Society has gone to the dogs because of technology" »

The other day I was presenting at a conference on sustainability, and wondered what I was doing there.  I clock up more air-miles than a rare bald headed eagle, have an unsustainable lifestyle, and don’t own a rainwater tank.  Don’t get me wrong I was flattered to be asked to talk, and trust I contributed to the conference, but it got me thinking. 

I can’t go past a discussion on a cultural, environmental, or societal issue these days without seeing an ‘ad-guy’ (and unfortunately it’s very often males) proffering their opinion on what will solve our latest ill.

Like it or not, the advertising industry is being pulled into all manner of communities with the hope they can solve the world’s issues. And like it or not, the world is now taking the ‘ad guy’ seriously. 

Continue reading "Since when did advertising become respectable?" »

The reintroduction of the Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill is a key step towards delivering a vibrant and competitive telecommunications sector. It is in the interests of all Australians.

The Gillard Government is committed to addressing the mistakes of the past and establishing an effective and efficient telecommunications regulatory framework.

Reforms outlined in the Bill include restructuring the market to promote greater competition and strengthening consumer safeguard measures such as Customer Service Guarantee and the Universal Service Obligation.

Continue reading "Here’s why we need to split Telstra" »

The debate about whether Tony Abbott should or should not have been able to answer questions about peak internet speeds probably divides Australians into two classes: the digerati and the rest.

Most Australians are hooked up to the web now, and the unconnected are a dwindling band of Luddites, plus those who believe they’re too old to learn computers, or too poor to pay for access.

But among those who do have internet access, there’s a wide spectrum of different experiences.

Continue reading "Stop the world, I want to get off" »

I reluctantly faced one of the simpler but more infuriating challenges that life throws at you. It can be summed up in three words: telco customer service. (Eds - this is a distressing column. Let’s start with some cheery hold music.)

I’ve had a mobile phone account with a leading telco provider for a number of years. Since moving to my new house over a year ago the coverage in the area has been terrible and as such I queried the problem on numerous occasions. It recently came to a head and I did the unthinkable – spent two and half hours of my life either on hold or chatting with one of a multitude of provider staff.

I spoke to iPhone, billing, the provider service centre, customer support and mobile customer support – I was flung like I rag doll around from representative to representative and each time I had to relay the same information; name, address, date of birth and nature of the problem.  On two separate occasions, just when I thought I was making progress, the connection failed while I was on hold and just like Groundhog Day I was forced to start all over again.

Continue reading "Customer service is on hold" »

Attention Senator Conroy: Forget about filtering the internet. Instead please pour your energy, time and (our) money into providing Australia with an internet – and a phone system for that matter – that works, is accessible and affordable.

Many Australians are likely oblivious to the communications dark ages in which we live. In the USA I can connect my home or office to a variety of internet providers, all offering great, low-priced deals. In Australia I am given a choice of a couple of providers with a few extra resellers offering outrageous prices and slow service.

In the USA almost all internet plans provide unlimited downloads and usage. In Australia I am offered plans limiting the hours I can spend on the internet; if I exceed this I am hit with exorbitant hourly rates or a slower internet.

Continue reading "Treating Aussie internet users like a bunch of dodos" »

As we expected, there has been considerable online discussion about our announcement to introduce ISP-level filtering.

For those who missed it, the Government announced legislation that will require Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block web pages that under the National Classification System are rated RC (Refused Classification). RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use.

The Government has always maintained there is no silver-bullet solution to cyber-safety and this new measure is one part of a comprehensive suite to address the range of challenges online. For example, we have funded 91 Australian Federal Police officers to the Child Protection Operations Team, as well as extensive education programs for parents, teachers and children.

Continue reading "The truth about net filtering" »

In August this year I wrote on this site about the lunacy of the Rudd Government’s proposed mandatory ISP internet filtering.

At that stage it was a trial but on Tuesday this week Minister Conroy announced his intention to proceed with legislation to enact this mad idea.

This is a policy that is based on a fraud so much so the Minister could barely explain it with a straight face yesterday.

Continue reading "Net filtering ‘plan’ is a fraud" »

On the campaign trail in 2007, the ALP promised to make cyberspace a safer place for children.  Strangely, this is one election promise that has fiercely stuck its ground. 

Australia may soon enjoy the dubious honour of being the world’s first liberal democracy to legislatively mandate internet filtering.

The original proposal creates a mandatory ISP-level filter.  Recent debate suggests a ‘voluntary’ scheme, whereby ISP licensing agreements include a filtering clause.  The ALP has not updated its original documentation. Significantly, this change removes the process from legislative scrutiny (read: goodbye transparency and accountability).

In terms of what content the filter will allow end users to access, however, the difference is rhetorical: either way, ISPs will filter what users can access.

Continue reading "No web filter will stop child pornography" »